California Greenlights Flywheel’s Smartphone Tech for Taxis

With regulatory approval in California, Flywheel is now gearing up to win over New York City’s taxi industry.

Amid the ride-hailing craze that’s seemingly taken over everywhere, one company is still focused on old school taxis.

Flywheel, a San Francisco company founded in 2009, is best known for equipping taxis with mobile apps used for picking up ride requests, similar to Uber and Lyft, and taking a cut from most of those fares.

On Tuesday, Flywheel said its new system, TaxiOS, received approval from the California Division of Measurement Standards. The company hopes its all-in-one software will replace everything in a taxi—from the meter to the credit card reader and GPS—with just a smartphone.

The California agency’s approval means that its system has been deemed accurate and reliable per its standards, and that Flywheel can now sell it to taxi companies in the state.